One more cake for Dad

Celebrating special occasions can be a lot of fun when you put imagination and love into them.

As each birthday nears in my family, I dream up ways to present a birthday cake that will go in the memory books. The tradition still lives on, only maybe not as grandiose as when the kids were little.

I love the freedom to create my own work and to see peopleís happiness and appreciation when they see their cakes.

Over the weekend I was fortunate to be able to make one more cake for my dad. He turned 90 on Saturday and I didnít think heíd make his goal of reaching that milestone. Heís been in and out of hospitals with numerous bouts of pneumonia and other complications and is now on hospice care where he lives in southern Indiana.

Over the years, Iíve made cakes created in the shapes of clowns, carousels, stars and even one shaped in the form of a medieval castle. I used to head over to my favorite craft store and rent a cake pan from Veda Lothamerís varied collection.

Since she retired, Iíve had to get more creative.

This time, I needed to think of something special. I considered a camping theme since Dad has enjoyed camping and has hiked some of the highest mountain peaks in South America. Heís also been an avid fisherman most of his life, finding solace in nature.

With that in mind, I remembered one cake I made with fruit roll-ups, popsicle sticks and a few toothpicks. That cake-top tent was about as difficult to put together as some regular tents Iíve put up over the years.

Twizzler bits served as logs for a campfire and blue sugar sprinkles filled in the lake quite nicely. The only thing you wouldnít want to eat along with the toothpicks was the dental floss, which served as fishing line.

Iíve spent hours decorating cakes and settings, and the outcome is nearly always worth the effort. But not all efforts have been as successful as others.

Iíll never forget one birthday cake festooned with long, skinny candles that collapsed and melted all over my wonderful creation. Or the time when I thought icing had to be homemade or I was committing a cardinal sin. On this particular occasion the powdered sugar had run out and guests were soon to arrive. A little flour went a long way to save that day.

Nowadays, you can count on Betty Crocker giving me a hand, but she canít do it all. Itís therapeutic to sit at the kitchen table making roses out of red fondant. But this time, jungles and wonderlands didnít seem to fit the bill.

Page 2 of 2 - This time, what seemed to work were some simple words written on top of smooth chocolate icing: "Happy Birthday Dad, with love!"

Since he couldnít eat the cake or even blow out the candles, he did look at it and it seemed to say just what it needed to, making it possibly one of the best cakes ever made.

Because, like always, it was made with love, and though it will probably be the last cake I make for him, the efforts were just about as sweet as it gets and IĎm lucky to have made it.

Nancy Hastings is a staff writer at the Hillsdale Daily News. Email her at nhastings@hillsdale.net.